Rose of Thorn
by Slade-illy
Summary: Portrayed... An abode of ancient darkness versus a comparable amount of light. Slade, and Rose... A character I created for myself, and then wrought into the Teen Titans world. And also a hint at Robin's evergrowing angst... Some SladexRobin
1. Chapter 1

-1There she was- Barely accountable for the shade that she seemed to be. Wandering, huffing and puffing across the scape of suburban homelands. She didn't even know where she was- New York Harbor was the closest thing to assumption.

Her footsteps paled in sound as the night stumbled with her. Monotonously, concrete pavement flitted by, the stars pompous for light upon her hooded head. A dark cloak, perhaps a woodland green, fluttered full of motion at her traveling heels. Passing by, a rat clattered a tin can- the girl turned a head, and then spurred even quicker into the alleyways. Some minutes later, the shadowed thing found herself on the shores opposite of an oddly-built tower. The shimmering shape of a gigantic 'T' within the midst of a lapping beachside. Titan Tower. The girl exhaled a mutter, and continued her hasty twists and turns through the city.

Comely enough, she clambored onto the sides of a rather large hill; the beginnings of a cliffsided mountain range. Now, one could see in a barely unclouded starlight, one of her tapered hands fumbling with a scrap of paper, just a snippet of dusty white with some words scrawled on. The hand drew close to her chest, clutching the paper as if it were made of insanely rare gold. Leaves crumpled at her footfalls, some cicadas and squabbling crickets chirping concernedly at her nervous pace. The edge of her cloak caught on a snapped branch, and a quip of the fabric tore off. The girl made no notice, and speeded through bramble and fallen trees. She even leapt through a rather sharp-rocked creek, a continuous determined expression quivering on her sweet features. At last, her feet skidded before a rather normal, average-looking side of a foothill. The somewhat grassy dirt upon the hillside was pitted with pebbles and the usual assortment of rock chips, rotting leaves, and trash passerbies had ungraciously dropped. Nothing odd, or frightening- But the girl threw back her hood, and her eyes held the bouts of extreme terror as they stared into the earthen wall. How odd.

And then, quite ubruptly, another shade dropped down from the autumn trees above.

It was a man- Or, it was the shape of one, anyways.

Swathed in tight, black leather, was it?- Equally accented by blips of sunburnt orange, a smooth mask of harder material governing his face, (a small grillwork at the jaw-area for breathing, it seemed,) leaving a single slit of an eye to stare out devoid of any emotion this planet knew of. Protective metal bits stapled to his hands, arms, and practically everywhere on his torsos complimented the undoubtedly steel-welded shoes, which looked as if they could survive multitaneous bomb attacks and still look as if they were brand-new from the local villian-shoe-pavillon.The whole form was rigid with muscles: Yep, absolutely terrifying in the colors of coincidental Halloween. It stepped from the haunting shadows, and deigned to stay silent, unnerving the crap out of the girl.

The girl turned her pale face towards the being, and the lights of the full moon finally showed her building looks. Black hair with tints of shiny brown thickly framed an ovaline face, licking the middle of her back, and echoing the pleasantly dark hazel colour her irises took. And, furthermore, her eyes were in the shape of perked almonds, a true heritage of an ol' asianic background. She looked as if her 14th birthday had just skipped by, surmissed by her height, which barely was as tall as the other's shoulders. Now, her own brownie eyes grew in the already-skeletal light, boring deep into the other's single, uncovered eye.

Her small, slightly slack mouth wavered. "Slade."

The shade moved. It disappeared momentarily from naked sight, and reappeared half-a-length from her, the flexed arm whipping out a short rap to the neck. Somehow, the girl dodged it from being fatal, recieving the heavy tap on her jaw bone instead. It throbbed with the strength of a witchety cackle, a little reminder for her to remember her training.

The shade flashed from her view again, and when she heard the whistling wind of a fist heading her way, the girl retaliated- There was a funny 'snikt' sound, followed by a sudden pause.

The pause extended into microseconds, and then continued on for a full heartbeat. The girl had extended a thin arm, her hand folded in a classical ninjutsu position. The arrow of her lightning-speeded fingers had cometed through the shade's mask, very literally. Apparently her nimble hands controlled amounts of electricity. Electricity the colour of blood. Eyes wider, she withdrew her finger, and watched the shade crackle, and then fall. Static fizzled through the cranium- But this time the douses of electrical currents were the normal hue of yellow and heated blue. The shade: It was an automaton robot. The drone had a small seizure before the mask exploded from the head, the little puncture where her fingers had lapsed into clear. Decomposing metal collapsed with something resembling a living sigh, before the downfall of the blade.

But, actually, that was what she was.

The girl looked at her trembling fingers.

She was a living blade. _The_ living blade, actually. #22, from the military's count, anyways.

Her mouth called out, "S-... Slade? Slade?..." It was like a blind baby lost in a sea of confusion, calling for his horrifyingly ignorant mother. "Slade?..."

And then, oh-to-hell, deep from the glimpseless darkness under an elm, a shadow replied. Enough with these mysterious shades, already!

"Dear child, where are you off to in such darkness?" Perhaps that was too cliche for someone like Slade, but that was just him, passing from one point of view to next when you least expected it.

The girl stared at the area where the voice had stirred. "Slade?.." she whispered stupidly, too stunned for anything but repitition, for now.

There he was- The exact same formation of the drone she had snicked of its life, but unlike the robotic counterpart, his single eye held onto a tad of human emotion: Wrath, anger, fury, mild surprise, hatred, and a sullen sarcasm beyond that. Slade cocked his head, his torso resting, serenly leaning on the trunk of the tree. His one eye grew into a tighter slit.

"What brings a young one like you out of town, into these frightening forests?" His somewhat baritone, oddly deep, yet light, tone was accented with pleasant words, flowing like the poison that dreaded kings' lips. It's kind of funny how scary a man in armoured tights can be.

"Slade!" Now, her body functions remorsely kicked in, and her shrill gasp echoed blandly around the scape. "I heard that _they_ did _that_ to you, too, and I've been searching for you ever since- I hafta learn how to control all of this!- I thought that if I found you,... you'd help me- _They_ did _that_ to me, too!..."

Ubruptly, her sudden spouting ceased into a blubber, and the girl crumpled into a heap of imbalancable teen hormones, and choppy weeping. Slade stood still from his tree, his head still cocked to the side in contemplative silence. And then, "Dear child, I have no idea what you mean by '_they_'." There was sound of slight movement, and a steel-capped boot took a step towards the cloaked huddle. The girl looked up from her sodden hands, brushing off some dried leaves from her lap.

"The military," she said.

That perked Slade's interest quite a bit up. "The military? I can't believe they used another soul for their 'tests'." He nonchalantly took another half-stride, just another walk-in-the-park for the supervillian. "So, child, tell me again why you were searching for me."

She looked at her fingers, glimpsing a graze of crimson static bounding across her palm. That, too, caught Slade's eye. "They gave me powers- I didn't want them, but _they_ did.-The military, I mean." Another red sliver of lightning jumped around her wrists before fading out into nothingness. She, or rather, her little 'power', had his full attention.

"Powers, child, are given to anyone who needs them, whether they like it, or not." The girl looked upwards, and for a moment, it looked as if the man was lost in a second of nostalgia. When Slade finally cast his unblinking gaze down at her, his eye was ablaze with an invisible inferno.

':,.':,.':,.':,.

It was morning. The night from before had dragged on with encrazed monotony, leaving little for anything but dull nightmares and irritable turning. But when she finally awoke, she found herself piled under a jumble of soft sheets, her head stuffed into a mess of cushions. _It's dark_, she thought to herself as she pulled away from the pillows. Even the room she was occupying was coated in inky black; no windows, no lights. Soon enough, she discovered her padded sneakers at the foot of the bed, and hastily tied them on while she blindly jumped around, trying to see into the impenetrable darkness. After checking her light-up watch (which read 6:15,), her forehead banged against a sheeted metal surface- A door? It slid out of her way with a quiet whirr, and a new landscape opened up before her. She blinked her eyes.

Rock. That was the first thing. Rock. And then, the ground was... more rock. But, black rock: slates of natural obsidian cleverly carved to substitute as flooring. The ceiling... It looked as if it never ended, conceiled within layers of more blackness than she had thought possible. More doors ran across the corridor in an easy pattern, all of them made of the same material of smoothed metal-n-tin silver. There were... little squares and symmetrical shapes dotting the high walls here and there, letting loose patches of dawnlight. Still was she garbed in her usual clothes- A nicely black shirt along with dark jeans scraped into a faded gray at the knees. Looking at herself in a check to see that everything was there- No missing fingers, or limbs, for that matter- The poor girl had been through quite a lot. A small graze where she had recieved the blow from that stupid robot from yesterday.

Yesterday! She had almost forgotton about the ordeal! Suddenly feeling panicked beyond reason, lost in these cursed hallways of stone, she scrambled for footholds and took off. Rose didn't even realize that her cloak was missing. Not now, anyways. Footsteps thudded across the stonework. "Hello?..." the girl called out to no one in particular, and her question bounced back at her from the cavern walls- A devilish mockery. '_Hello?, ello?..., lo..._' The echoes replied. The girl stared upwards before turning to run the other way. "Uh..- Slade? That _is_ your name, isn't it? Or, at least, what people call you?... Slade?..." Yes, now she was thoroughly driven in the depths of nervous havoc, her feet continuing to unconsciously sprint around in circles, it seemed. And then, a sort of 'boof!' sound. She suddenly bumped against a rather hard surface, maybe it was another one of those metal doors?

Not quite, as it turned out. Indeed it was metal- The iron-coloured plate shone brightly in a waxed sheen, reflecting her own expression of gilded surprise, and momentarily wide eyes. But... not so much a door. Rather, it was Slade, standing stock still in a soldier's proud position, his arms angled and locked behind his back, legs straight and still as an artist could get. She had apparently rammed into his right shoulder, and stumbled back after the hypothesis appeared in her mind. "Uh- Slade." She cursed herself to oblivion. Was she any good for anything besides repeating his stupid name? "Slade-" she said one more time, just to steady out, "What happened? Where?-I don't, I mean, I..." Pausing, she looked up and immediately shriveled under his intent stare.

"First of all, I'd rather you speak properly enough so that I can understand you. Second, if you're going to ask a question, ask it one question at a time." The last few syllables were carried out with a little stress upon them- not that all of his words weren't strong enough anyways. He continued to look down at her, with what- contempt? Oblivious hatred? Whatever the emotion sizzling in his mind was, it meant all but naught for her.

Slade serenely added, "... And, I didn't happen to get your name from the day before."

"-Rose. My name's Rose, you know, like the plant? I have a last name, too, but it doesn't mean anything since my... biological parents, eh... " (here an uncomforting and foggy silence blew past,) "And, well, the military only called me '#22' all the time; I guess they meant I was the 22nd... uhm... experiment.."

The other seemed to ignore everything else she said, with the exception of the portion about her name. "Rose. What a pleasant name," Even though he said it with a light tone, it was like Slade was taking apart the word, delving into its very bloodstream to tear away any strength he could find. And worst of all, Rose could actually picture the action in her head, and since this was a guy that was supposed to be _helping_ her, she didn't presume her little vision would mean anything good. She gulped.

"Thanks," _I think_, she completed in her head. He didn't reply and swiftly turned around to walk away, but before he made the second step- "Slade!- Wait-" And then, he twisted his upper torso as quick back towards her as he had otherwise to find a small palm heading for his head at high speed. Rose's hand met the target, and five lithe fingers clasped around his forehead area.

Her hand, her arm... stretching across the directed width to clutch at his mask. It pressed against his fore with a slight inclination of his head, Rose's hand still grappled tightly onto his upper head (It was too small to fully wrap itself around his entire skull.). Slade's eye glanced down, and he would've stubbornly said something along the lines of what-the-hell-are-you-doing, but didn't get the chance to do so, as he clearly saw her eyes flash a brilliant red, shockingly (no pun intended,) scarlet sparks siphoning up and down her thrown arm. Those said scarlet sparks fizzed out onto Slade's mask, and he felt his own vision suddenly cloud with a mist of pulsing crimson. The following happened in a matter of seconds.

Rose dove right in. The odd memories swirled around her like an ocean current, a few eager to be shown, the multitudes of the rest untouchable. She lurked around and slipped by a rather large chunk of memoirs, and felt a strange spark winding across her hands. It was a crackling energy line consisting of a very intriguing-looking memory... She felt the twinges of pain, fury, betrayal, and yet... she felt peace. Rose hesitated, but then shoved a palm into it.

_Wow..._, she mouthed. Reliving this particularily corrupted piece of remembrance was amazing. There was a demon of acropoliptic proportions, sitting amidst a smoldering tower. The 'teen titans' Rose had often heard about were giving out a furious battle. The world was aflame, hope was drenched with the deceased souls of billions- the End of the World that never happened. She waded across some more, and saw a depiction of Slade battling against a behemoth, the events rolling across her like some multi-max video clip. Volcanic lava spewed from crumbling gorges, flaming swords and weaponry beating back the remaining defenses of the titan team, and Slade himself. She looked around, stunned.

She saw Slade.

His death. His rebirth. His defeat, his victory. It echoed the cycle the entire earth revolved through.

She saw his life. Or this heavy portion of it, at the very least.

But before she could scratch into the frighteningly mystical memories even more, a silky voice rang about. 'Rose, what are you doing?' The way towards the other's mind ubruptly closed, shutting with a final sound of a groan. The girl stood still in a mass of empty darkness. Not quite empty enough. 'Dear child, if you were curious, you should have simply asked.'

_I know you wouldn't have had told me anything true if I did_ that._ Leave it to you super-villians to be stupid like that._

'True. The first part, anyways.' The voice seemed to ponder about something, and then dryly ended in, 'I don't take too kindly to anyone who decides they need to intrude into my mind."

There was an obvious threat there, and Rose quickly withdrew. The red light faded from both of their eyes as her arm eased down to her side, hanging there until it raised back up to brush bothering hair strands from her face.

Slade glanced at her. "Interesting."


	2. Chapter 2

-1

-2 weeks after Rose and Slade's encounter.-

Robin glared at the monitor as hard as he could, but even if he kicked it, that tiny red blip would stay on anyways. The dot on the digitized map beeped continuously, and his ears rang from listening to it do so for the last 3 hours. Cyborg appeared beside him and put a metallic hand on his shoulder. "Dude, relax. You don't have to watch for Slade 24/7."

"I just don't trust him-"

"Who does? Besides, relax a little. Look," Cyborg pointed a thick finger at the screen,

"He's barely moving around, let alone destroying stuff. You can start worrying when he _does_ cause trouble."

"That's not the real reason I'm worried."

"Huh?"

Robin tapped something unto the curved keyboard. A view clips from days before popped up. "Look at all these," Now it was Robin's turn to point. There was a softly blue dot meeting with the red blip everyday, at the same time, often in a similar region. "I don't like the looks of this..."

Cyborg tiredly cracked his neck while a phrase spurted from his mouth: "Two words, man- Just. Relax."

Just then, an alarm blared throughout the T-tower. Starfire automatically barged in, "Trouble!"

The titans naturally made a flurry of movement to the site, but as Cyborg's tech-car skidded onto the street, there was... nothing there.

"Was there not a signal signifying trouble?" shrilled a surprised Starfire. The Tamaranian looked around the empty intersection- It was deserted, and somewhat quiet. Robin kneeled down and touched the dusty ground; Scuff marks showed through the dimness.

"... I'm sure that 'trouble's' still out here," he said blandly. And, sure enough, a sweet-like laugh cawed around the team.

Raven stirred. "What was that?" The laughter echoed in a spooked assemble, and a sudden tapping sound vibrated through the ground. Footsteps.

The spiked-hair leader of the group narrowed his eyes, "Stay together- We don't know if that was Slade or not." (At this, the rest of the crew rolled their eyes.)

Just then, a bolting form barricaded through the middle of the tightly grouped titans- It slipped on the ground and ricocheted off of an abandoned building, leaping with unbelievable bullet-like speed. And then, another form flitted from the fog- a well-known, rather petty criminal by the name of 'Doctor Light'. The swift form jumped into the air, and for a moment, it flashed into view: A... girl. Just an average-looking girl, about similar ages with the titan members, wearing a normal array of a shirt and jeans. But then, apparently she wasn't so normal as thought. The super-teen team watched blankly as she punched into Light, throwing him off of the rooftops and into the ground. The crash was deafening: sending roaring wind and collapsing sound all around them; Cyborg had to hold onto Beast Boy to keep him from flying off. "What _was_ that?!" he yelled at Robin after the hurricane died down.

The boy didn't answer and instead ran straight into the area. He quickly stumbled into a huge crater with a gasp, and crawled through the wreckages of old relical buildings. What he saw breifly stunned him of breath. Even when his colleagues joined him with little time wasted, they too were silent. The girl- her dark hair tossed in the musted breeze- kicked an unconcious Doctor Light out of her way, his 'indestructible mega-suit' crumpled like a pennied tin can. He patheticly rolled from her path- and the girl laughed cheerfully.

"Dang- Haven't had that much fun since... years," and then she seemed to notice the utterly quiet titans staring at her, "Oh. Hi! Who're you guys?", she glanced at their colorful fits and added, "You're not circus performers,... are you?" Her eyes were brightly incredulous, a happy brown colour- like the day after a pleasant picnic. How stupidly shocking.

Robin finally managed to blurt something out, "Uh... We're the Teen Titans. ...Who are you?"

The girl stepped towards the team, and flipped her hair again. Her day-to-day sneakers heavily clashed with the metal-coated boots and shin guards Robin wore. "Uhm... no one you should know about... And, by the way- Sorry that I completely ruined this street,"

She looked back at the deep crater, and the crooked remains of Doctor Light, "Sometimes I can get a little out of hand."

"_A little out of hand?_" squeaked Cyborg. He looked over the mystery-girl, her clothing not even touched with scratches.

She laughed again, a smile shuffling onto her features, and walked back into the dirty mist,

"Well, maybe we'll see eachother sometime! I gotta go now..." Her voice trailed off as the titans numbly stared at eachother.

Back at the Tower, Robin mulled over the odd events while Starfire and Cyborg attempted cheering up a sullen Beast Boy. "We didn't even get to fight! I was ready for a good verses evil kind-of-battle!- Eh, I mean..." Beast Boy caught the dangerously glinting eye of Raven, and returned to keeping his mouth shut.

At the end of the day, much to Starfire's pines of him looking tired, Robin retired early into his room to think about the strange encounter. It was all too familiar, like a planned wreak. His thoughts turned to Terra for the rest of the night.

':,.':,.':,.

"You didn't tell them your name?"

"Nope."

"Or of your reasons?"

"Nuh-uh."

"And they didn't act... suspicious?" His one eye narrowed.

"Not at all- Stop worrying so much, Slade."

Slade exhaled and stood against a metal-work rails, his straight back towards the girl, who was determinedly tying her fraying shoelaces. Below the platform where the twosome was lounging, clanking steel wheels revolved together, meshed together into a marsh of burning mithril and melting pools of iron rigging. The second heart of his cavernous mansion; the bleak Engine Room. The railing he was standing before let in slits of flaring light to help brighten up his malicious tone. "Worrying... doesn't quite cover it." He turned his head to the side, the black half exposed to Rose. "And I suppose you made a commotion of yourself?"

"Well..." She made a frown in a way most parents would immediately recognize as the face of not-exactly.

Perhaps a quarter of an hour quietly ticked off between the two, and only after Slade turned his entire body around did he speak. "Now, let us get back to that topic about your powers."

Rose avoided his lidded stare and forcefully continued to retie, and unravel her shoes. "I don't want to talk about it."

"You can't always avoid it, Rose."

"I can try," She glared at Slade. "I hid my lightning from the Titans when I was beating up that retard Light, and I can hide the other powers-I-don't-even-know-I-have, too."

Slade overcame her spitting stare and replied nonchalantly, "Your naivete is touching. But you need to understand that you are not one to simply run away from your powers."

He clacked forward, a few paces closer to the now-still Rose. "You are not like Terra, nor are you even close to comparable to the Titans. You were made as a weapon of war by the military. You were trained, created, and made to be a _host_ for your powers." Another step. "Your hands control lightning. Your mind can control others. Your body can increase in density to uphold immense amounts of super-human strength." He paused, slightly inclining his mask to look down at the seated girl, her frown deepening into a slashing line. "You were _created_ to be a force of destruction. Do you think you can simply walk away? Dear child, believe me, I have tried to act rashly. Doing so resulted in my death, and only by sheer chance did I get my life back." Slade clenched a gloved hand, and then loosened it before returning his hard gaze unto her. He lowered his upper torso to stare at her level, into her eyes. Armoured arms still folded behind his army back, he dabbled on the final touch, interrupting her chance to pipe up and stop his demonic speech. "You see, Rose, it is undoubtedly true that you can change your destiny. However, it is absolutely impossible to change your reason for living." Malice fumed through the grill lines in his mask, clouding the frightened brow before him.

"Reason for liv-..."

"Your reason for living, child, is the same as mine- the military both did this to us, and we hold apart similar experiences in recieving these powers. Your reason for living is _to destroy_. To eradicate. To cause hatred and pain where ever you are and whenever you can." His breath came in spiteful puffs of air. Just a hair-breathe of a distance from the younger's quivering face.

Rose stared at him, and then slipped off of her dark chair, breaking eye contact as she fled away into the shadows of the cavern.

"Think of your powers as a 'gift', Rose," he calmly finished after her terrified departure.

How he enjoyed cruelty.

Whenever he got the chance, Robin would shove himself into piles of computerized information, grappling any information he could pull out about the girl.

Many false starts. Too many.

It had been a while since he had fallen asleep peacefully, now that he thought about it. No matter. He hacked at the mountainous databases locked around the city's mainstream, poring at little, useless flickers of information he would go through anyways. He could tell that the other team-mates were becoming restless and worried over this new obsession.

_'We don't know if she's an enemy or not.'_

_'Dude, I know you're thinking about Terra- relax, man. She didn't look like a bad guy to _

_me,' replied Cyborg._

_Robin thrust an accusing finger at the screen. 'But according to the map, she's the one that's been meeting with Slade for the past few days.'_

_'I'm gonna tell this to you again, man. You gotta slow down a little. And besides, even if she _is_ working for Slade,... who knows? Maybe he's turned over a new leaf or somethin. I mean, come on!- She stopped Doctor Light for us- I doubt that's a bad act.'_

_Robin narrowed his eyes._

And now, finally, he recieved a rather large shock as he found a small, barely uncovered snip of an uncovered profile, lost in the darker regions of an private militia's networking systems. He read it aloud, "Subject #22. Experiment to create the ultimate superhuman 'weapon'," The title would've sounded corny if not for that it was actual. Then the persona's picture bought his attention. The black-haired girl, a soldier picture- facial profile showing a rather normal looking girl. Robin scanned on. "Orphan; biological family and name unknown and lost; brought for military standards of physique training and artifici-" At this, the profile stopped mid-word. Apparently someone had attempted to erase the further notices. Robin nearly crumpled the desk-pad in his grip.

_Experiment?_

He eventually decided to alert the others during lunchtime, after Beast Boy had 'unknowingly' ordered a few tons of food from the Pizzaeria. Through a mouthful of cheese, Cyborg submitted to the news with a hacking cough of a choke. "She's a

WHAT?!"

"I searched through the part of her profile that wasn't erased. It said that she was 'an Experiment.' Some other military or something gave her... powers."

Starfire was silent for a moment, and then sadly whispered, "Like Red Star." The team thought back to the snowy ranges of a past memory, remembering the lone ranger that had been the host of an unstable power, given to him by a dying army. In the end, he had sacrificed himself in the darkness of space, to relieve the earth and his friends, of his imploding strength.

Raven retaliated after flipping a page of her black-bound book. "Well, that would explain how she totally trashed Doctor Light, along with half of an intersection."

"But what's she doing _here_, then? I mean, did she run away like..." Beast Boy faltered off, and Robin finished for him.

"Like Terra? Maybe, maybe not. We can't know for sure. That's why we need to make up our own experiment. A trap to find her again." Everyone stared at him, and then traded glances.

_Uh oh,_ they all thought.

Beast Boy rubbed the tight dreams from his face, blinking at the echoing words in his head. Coincidentally, 'sleep' happened to be one of them. "Aw man- Robin, I know how important this plan means to you, but did you _**hafta**_drag _the rest of us in_?" His squeal sounded blandly around the gorge, a rather high and unstable-looking jutt grumbling high above the group. The beachside shied against scuttled rocks, which continued to clatter noiselessly while the team made their sullen way. Except for, of course, Robin, who actually seemed bright and alert. Well, perhaps not _bright_; but certainly alert.

"You know Robin, BB might be right- It's 3 in the mornin and we all should really be in bed," Cyborg groggily motioned to a far speck behind the team, a single, softly lit dazzle of dawnlight flouncing upon the surface. Titan Tower.

Robin turned his head. "This is important, Cyborg. A few hours of lost slee-" But alas for Cyborg, the center of Robin's stony sigh was vaguely interrupted by a rather large rumbling sound.

_Rumble_... went the mentioned rumble. And then it came again, a wind-waped shallow of a cliff not too far from the titans giving an ubrupt string of shivering. Pebbles tickled off the terran surface, the foaming tide below nonchalantly brewing about as clumps of grass and earth toppled into the blue.

_Rumble_...

The band was awaiting the moment in twitchy afterthought- Afterall, Robin had the whole thing planned out down to the direction of the lapping waves, even though the rest of the titans didn't really have the blurriest thought of Robin's executive plot. They had just been woken up and told to follow along. If you didn't know Robin very well, you'd call the boy a paranoid obsessor. If you _did_ know him well, you'd call him a paranoid nut-case. The said leader glared intently at the hillside, fervently making hushing notions with his hands at Beast Boy. The quaking went on. And then, quite justly, it screeched to a halt. Full silence. There was a faint scuffing as Raven whipped back her hood...-

The cliff exploded.

Crude deafens lashed around the area, and Starfire floated up in a stun: rivullettes of greenery and fertilm smashed into the waters. But though the chaos continued unceasing, the eyes weren't on the massive bombing. Rather, all ten lines of sight focused on what was standing in the midst of the shredded vinery. A small shadow, equipped with nothing but a slackly dark pair of jeans with a belt wrapped about in a slim affair. Spastically enough, she was wearing a shirt labeled _'Gotham City Corps_.' in red at the front. Robin glared some more, ignoring the presence of a nervous Tamaranian fidgeting behind him.

The girl based atop the demolished cliff was holding out a hand, a hand laced with red currents of what looked like electricity. The colours of blood shone happily on the whips of lightning before retracting into the child's palm. Smiles and all, with another respondant flicker of her fingers, the remainder of the gorge disappated in a hurricane of dust and irritated ocean waves, tumbling into the abyss of destruction below. Black hair stretched around her cranium as whistles of hollows wound about her.

And; to finish the flourish off, Robin hurriedly stood up and nodded to head back to the tower. Starfire seemed more worried than ever, and Raven had a hollow look to her. Cyborg was stoic as he slung a slumbering BB on his metal intrigate.

…But Robin didn't mind, or seem to notice, for that matter.

He had something he needed to look into.


	3. Chapter 3

-1

The thunder eased down to a mellow hum as the cliff deteriorated before her eyes. Then, she grudgingly supposed, Slade's training was (just maybe,) working. Actually, the regime was going along pretty well. Train at dusk, train at dawn, take a coffee break at lunch, and then go blow up some mountains after supper. Huh.

Rose decided against beheading the side's crumpled remains, and flippantly went along a soft walk into the woods behind her. Dewlaps clung desperately to the heavy leaves, onward oak rows portraying the waning rule of Autumn. Gold, red, and the occasional spirited orange dotted the otherwise sharply dried branches. The lighting, the colours, the mood- It was all very pretty and such.

Rose hated it. It only egged her of empty things, horribly nightmarish in quality and even worse in thought. The season could only be the reminder where the girl had fallen into a pit-hole of traps, thus leading to a continuous helplessness; a continuous labyrinth of cages and rusted glass. The only memoirs she fished back from the sienna bark and, what otherwise might be described as a 'personified oil palette of rustic ruby and sunshine yellow' leaves, were deep, dark, and impitiable shadows.

Speaking of shadows... Mildly, an infintismal rustle shattered the forest floor. Perhaps the vagabond wanted to make a show of himself, this time.

And soon enough, Slade ubruptly appeared beneath a slim aspen, the bleaching bark twanging with morning-mist. Of course, even though Rose always knew his marking presence, their meetings were always surprises. Usually not good ones. Rose stiffened.

"I'm training. Go away."

The other idly stared at a demented gingko lined up not too far away. "Really? To me it looked as if you were taking walk through the woods."

"Go away." She trudged through a sticky bramble bush before refinding herself near a calm creek. Marbles of random composite materials lolled around the shallowbeds, the lovely water clear with a clean, brisk appetite. A rythm of flouncing splashes started up in spite of Rose's glowers. Slade sleekly followed.

"How has your training been going?" he dabbled in. The villian had a ghostly tendency to stay half-hidden under the blackest shadows, as he was doing now beneath a swaying elm.

Slade watched satisfactorily as Rose made a mutter.

She threw a composite pebble chip into the brook. "It's been okay. I destroyed that one cliff by the northern beachside today. You know; the one that's hidden by the rocks?"

Contemplative silence. And then: "Good," came the stoic answer, "I'm glad you did."

':,.':,.':,.

Raven was lounging in her room as usual, taking a speculative breath here and there in her deep trance. It was afternoon.

Meditation was her escape. Not that she particularily needed a paradisial escapade, just sometimes she missed the sights of the ancient _Azarath_.

At least a month had skittered along since the defeat of Trigon and his undashingly demonic ways. With the conquerance of Earth gone and Raven's father wiped clean off the face of the Universe, a gentle calm rode sweet waves around the half-breed's room: easing, quiet, perfectly fin-

"HEY RAVEN!- Robin wants ta see all of us," said Beast Boy, hanging with a peevish look of doubt at the doorway. Raven threw the nearest book at him (a rather heavy leather-bound bibliography,) and stepped from her floating rest, trailing her cloak towards the main hall.

Raven settled down onto the farthest corner of the lined sofa, which happened to be next to Cyborg, and stared flaringly at Robin.

The tallest of the team spoke first. "If this is another plan I'm gonna go back to my room." yawned Cyborg, who snatched the T.V. control from BB. Beast Boy snarled into a bloodhound and the two immediately resolved into a rough fight over the remote. The rest ignored them and continued on.

"But Robin, isn't this a little too... obsessive?" husked Raven, "We're not even sure Slade's alive, let alone that he has a new... 'apprentice'." She coughed a little and sunk comfortingly into her darkish cloak.

Starfire nodded, much to Robin's despair, "I think Raven is correct. Who are we to attack Slade when he has not even hurt us, or the city?"

"I never said we would _attack_ him," finalized the boy wonder. Robin tugged at his gel-packed hair in mild frustration, "I just don't understand! If she _is_ working for Slade-"

"-Which she probably isn't-"

"-then all we have to do is follow her-"

"-Which isn't a good idea-"

"-and then catch Slade!" Cyborg's remarks remained undisturbed by Robin as the boy did a little round of impatient pacing. He swivelled to a stop and clenched a gloved hand. "I still don't trust him, do you?"

A sigh came from Starfire's direction, "In a way, Slade saved us by saving Raven. And he helped us in defeating Trigon."

"Way to state the obvious," muttered Raven.

Their leader strode against the stretch of glass supported behind the main screen, a slight shine from the window illuminating the floor. Robin stared, and stared some more. But before he could chance a snatch at his bubbling idea, an alarm rose in a high-pitched shriek.

No sooner had Robin glimpsed the alert screen, he had sprinted off into the T-Mobile. The said monitor was beeping crazily, and Cyborg less-hastily read the signal. A gray dot blipped on the map. It was a subordinatial living boulder that the team had once linked to Slade from. Having no real name, the titans had christened it 'Cinderblock' ever since their first... unpleasant... encounter.

Burning tires skidded along the crumbling stone pavement as the group broke free from their seatbelts. This was an unusual yet simple meeting. As Cyborg put it- "Get over there, kick Cinderblock's butt, and get back in time for pizza."

How little the titans knew.

The ditch where the beast lumbered was a disused arena; a construction site that never really got past the 'building' segment. Cinderblock screeched and hefted a dilapitated roto-truck into its arms, readying a throw towards the source of Robin's voice.

"Titans, GO!"

Green flares lanced from tamaranian hands, neon flashes echoing the empty lightning from Raven. As usual, the group emptied most of their teen angst onto the colossus of stone, and their concentration seemed to fully amuse the shade standing atop the arena's side. As soon as BB butted into the golemn, they all stood at the remains of Cinderblock. Cyborg checked his internal watch. "Four minutes and 23 seconds. That's probably the fastest time we've ever beaten a bad guy so far!" Starfire floated in her slight jubilance as Robin slipped away.

He glanced around the site. The battle was over, he knew that, but something was just wrong. He slipped between a pair of splintering crates and glared at the flitting dust. Another look at the empty grounds. And then he realized that it wasn't near empty enough.

"Looking for something, Robin?"

The boy threw a panicked razor at the air behind him, and watched the said boomerang disappear into the mist. "Slade," he snarled. His ears perked upwards- a small clattering sound, and then several footfalls... a slick of wind. Robin leapt and furtively lost himself to the darkening maze, fully buried within his desperation, wanting, wishing to _know_...- To know the truth. He leapt over a scrapped tumbler and ubruptly ran into a concrete wall.

The aging cement rippled with dust as Robin shot it aside with an inhuman jerk. Somethng exited from his mouth- it was a vague mutter, but undeniably spitting: "_Slade_. Where are you? You can't hide forever, you coward!"

The arena mocked him with a numb stillness of air...

A flash! The glint of steel polished with a sickly finish, a crumple of rotted core-wood, a stinging river of sweat refusing to drop from his skin.

"Nervous already, Robin?" A shade revolved within the dust-

Slade.

If all the rage he possessed could be squelched into raw power, it would've taken on the simple form of a sun.

A nuclear, activitationed sun in charge of the earth, heavens, stars,...

-And hell.

Robin glared. He also grappled at his flexed fighting stick, feeling it loosely slip from a pathetic cylinder into a dull metal-rod. Parting out another famous narrow-eye slit, he held it aloft in a less-than-flimsy and yet more-than-thunderous stance. Slade just stared at him.

"So, Robin," commented the villain, " have you kept up with your training?"

Lightning followed, with accents of screeching steel and castless jumps- Occasionally there was a heathened blip of time whereas the two would trade glances... and then it would pass as the pair went on to thrash eachother in another round of cajoling. Actually, it was more of the Boy Wonder getting stumbled to snippets- Slade was untouched.

And then, of course, a few moments continuing, Robin found his chance.

A parry led to a thrust (The boy felt one of his fingers crack with regret) and a thrust favored in a jump. An upward swing of his rod- there! An opening above the stupid other's head where his stupid mask would fall stupidly to the ground in vanquish. That was his plan, anyway. Robin brought his chrome guillotine down; and felt a ring bound from the target with a solid chunk. He clenched his hands, loosened them, and then tightened his grip again. Civetted eyes shone a white stare from his mask and yet still would not believe such speed could be mustered. His muscles vibrated in their casements of flesh, pressing tyrannically on his forced weapon. Oh sure, he'd hit something, but it _hadn't been Slade_...

Like a bead of swollen blood time slithered across its reign, and along with it, a few seconds simmered away. Or maybe it was a few hours. Days. It didn't matter, though.

Robin was agape. If he had stuttered an excuse, the situation might have turned out better.

Instead, since no word was uttered, the lack of explanation evaporated like a beached carcass. Still, the boy stared stunned as if he had been the one struck, and not the trembling girl before him.

"You're..." His fingers squeezed his fighting stick with a sudden turmoil, and he blandly looked at her some more. Her hands were curled into sweating fists, arms locked in an X-mark, holding an efficient stop to Robin's weapon between the intersection. And the black hair that trailed down those raised arms..."You're that _girl_-!"

"An obvious statement, Robin; and if you haven't guessed, she's my new apprentice." Any other man in his place would have been stark white with silence. The tip of Robin's rod was a half-inch struggle away from Slade's stony mask, and the adult gave it an apprehensive glance before turning his eye towards Rose. It was astonishing, really, he hadn't really thought about her during his little cajole with Robin. But then, here she was, trying something completely stupid just to protect him from something that wouldn't have hurt him in the first place. Slade took a fatherly stare and drove it through her head.

Rose seemed to have not heard her new master. "Don't touch him! I'll protect him if I have to!" Her arms were shaking some more; and now it was evident that the steel rod's strike had left more than just a single bruise worth mentioning. Voice shrill with a breath noting on her long run to the site, she snapped at Robin, eyes boiling with something high-rated mercenaries call 'to-the-Gates-of-Hell'.

The boy retracted his pole and took a skidding pace back, his face turned towards the curious duo. "What are you doing with Slade? You- _don't you know who he is_?" His neck whipped at the mentioned other and spat out, "Don't you remember what happened to _Terra_, your_ last_ apprentice? You-"

Slade raised a melancholy hand and gently placed it upon Rose's shoulder. "It's different this time, Robin."

Canidical snarls were nothing compared to Robin's voice. "What are you planning?! World domination? The destruction of our city? -Or are you working for another _demon_ again?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

A screech owl corrupted the hallowed scene. Fastid winds pushed the moon behind a musky cloud; and when the shadows had departed, the threesome had shrunk to one.

Robin was alone.

':,.':,.':,.

Back at Slade's manic mausoleum deep within the upper-city hills, Rose was having another outing through the drying woods.

Winter was coming. Bark scraped with early freeze gave her a reason to be somewhat joyous, and the creek was beginning to gain a glacial sparkle- A hue of six-thousand stars reminding her of crispy cornflower skies and burdened sapphire lusts. It wasn't too chilling for a coated jacket though, so the girl only took the dark scarf she had bought at City Square. After a morning roaming about the starkly trees, her mind refreshed, she retired back to her new... home.

She met Slade at his seemingly favorable place- The ghostly Engine Room. Corrugated wheel-works kept their loud cracking and bawling in unhelpful, and indefinitely noisy, motions. Rose had come to guess that the deathly sounds calmed Slade's nerves, and since there wasn't a better reason to cope with, she had admirably stuck with the first thought on notice.

As usual, there was silence between the two.

His back was towards her, and a smoke rose from the lower floor to seethe across his mask. A capilarial pipe hissed with electromagnetic static before collapsing into a final lump at Slade's feet. He ignored it while it slipped off the corrugated balcony and fell into the abyss under. Outside, faint murmurs of sleet, perhaps rain, shrieked against above the cavern.

"About Robin..."

Slade turned his head for a moment, and then went back to unacknowledgement.

Seated on a section of rail placed paces away, Rose went on, "Why does he hate you so much?" Splatters overhead- the drops, pouring.

"Robin and I have had numerous encounters; most of them which were unpleasant," It was a steadily quick reply. Curt. Slade twisted his torso at an easy angle, and bore a stare into Rose's arms. From the upper elbow to her thin wrists, the skin was hidden behind a layer of seeping bandage- to hide the heavy bruising, to heal the golem scrapes, to keep her even more so fragile limbs from snapping like pathetic little twigs. "He was once my apprentice, you know."

Rose didn't trade his vision, and fumbled with the tips of her hair.

"It wasn't easy- You might as well guess that it took a large amount of... persuasion to get him to join my ranks." Thunder overhead, lost in the rain.

"Persuasion- phft! What dyu do? Threaten to blow up his friends?" It was as these kind of moments that Slade might have smiled. Of course, as emotionless as he was, he didn't. The following latter resolved to carry on with a different subject.

"You know, Rose," the heathen drawl went, "you might be wondering what attracts me to hunt down apprentices."

Said girl shuffled down from her perch and sidled to Slade's side. "Like I care."

"Loyalty. That- and Power. You could call them... ambitions."

A black strand curled around her fingers, the hair raveling with a certain dignity. A pause. Then,"... And if the apprentice doesn't meet the requirements?" Was that twinge of hollowness within her voice? Regret? Slade leaned against the brigaded iron fence, replying.

"Then I would kill him. Or her. Whichever you prefer, child."

Somewhere above his unholy head, a bout of lightning snarled in complaint.


End file.
